Recruiting agents of reform

CMS health care program seeks innovators at local level

Will a new $6 million endeavor be strong enough to help change how an $800 billion federal program has done business for more than four decades?

CMS officials are confident and health care industry leaders are hopeful that the Innovation Advisors Program — intended to help leaders gain the skills to carry out system reforms for Medicare, Medicaid and Children's Health Insurance Program beneficiaries — will improve health care services in communities nationwide, and, in the process, help the agency achieve its three-part aim of improving care, bettering health and lowering costs.